Rupert Murdoch, Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger celebrate Moraga Bel Air’s 30th anniversary
Elizabeth Jagger, from left, Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall and husband Rupert Murdoch, Harvey Keitel and Daphne Kastner at a barbecue lunch to celebrate 30 years of Moraga Bel Air winery in Bel-Air. Murdoch and his wife were hosts of the afternoon gathering.(Frank Micelotta / Moraga Bel Air)
Rupert Murdoch and Mick Jagger are part of one big, extended family. At Sunday’s 30th-anniversary gathering for the media tycoon’s Moraga Bel Air winery in Bel-Air, the Rolling Stones frontman, fresh from performing at the Rose Bowl, enjoyed a barbecue lunch with two of his children, James and Elizabeth Jagger, and their mom, Jerry Hall, who is now married to Murdoch.
Murdoch, casually dressed in a navy polo shirt, mingled with guests as a mariachi band performed. Murdoch bought Moraga Bel Air in 2013 and turned it into his West Coast home.
“We are so grateful for the hard work and passion the Moraga team puts into making this special wine,” Murdoch said. “It’s our true pleasure to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Moraga with our family and friends. It’s a wonderful day. I love the mariachis. So festive.”
Added Hall: “We love being a part of the wine community. My love of Moraga has inspired me to take a course on viticulture and enology.”
Guests at the affair included Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times, and his wife, Michele Chan Soon-Shiong; Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corp. and executive chairman and chief executive officer of Fox, and his wife, Sarah; Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co.; and actor Harvey Keitel.
Fox executives in attendance were Eric Shanks, chief executive of Fox Sports; Mike Biard, president of distribution and operations for Fox; and Jack Abernethy, who oversees Fox Television Stations.
Other luminaries in the executive ranks were Peter Rice, a former top Murdoch lieutenant who is now Walt Disney Television chairman and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks (he joined Disney in March with the transfer of assets from Fox to Disney); Ron Meyer, vice chairman of NBCUniversal; and producer Brian Grazer.
Researcher and author Tracey Wilen and her husband were part of Sunday’s festivities. They are members of Moraga’s Cielo Club.
“As Bay Area Silicon Valley transplant[s], we were surprised to find a vineyard in Los Angeles that produced quality wine on such a beautiful property,” Wilen said. “We have been invited to events hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Murdoch, who are extremely gracious hosts and enjoy the world of wine and wine making. Rupert is walking wisdom. He is an avid reader, has a wealth of advice and is very easy to talk to. Jerry is gracious, super smart and has immersed herself into Moraga’s vineyard.”
Public relations executive Nicole Muj, another guest at the event, said she was fascinated by who was in attendance at the party.
“It was so interesting today to see and meet the leaders in entertainment, politics and publishing worlds, celebrating the summer season in a nonpartisan venue,” Muj said. “What a special event to celebrate the winery family and our beautiful planet.”
Events producer Steven Petrarca created a California-casual look for the vineyard garden party. “We don’t have [a lot of] wineries in L.A., so we are stealing a little of the Napa Valley vibe,” Petrarca said. “We also wanted the casualness of a backyard barbecue, so we tried to merge the two together.”
The Murdochs wanted a buffet, so guests could get their own plates and walk around and chat among themselves. “They liked the idea of leaving the vineyard in its natural state, letting people enjoy the California-casual space,” Petrarca said.
An assortment of organic garden roses was staged in vintage terracotta pots. “These flowers were selected from various local growers, along with herbs and lavender that are growing at the winery,” Petrarca said.
Scott Rich, winemaker and manager at Moraga Bel Air, selected red and white vintage wines for the lunch. “To be able to make wine for 30 years is a milestone for us,” Rich said. “This party is a lovely excuse to invite people who had never been here to see what we do. It’s a very special day for us as we very rarely have guests on property.”
The gathering was catered by Culver City-based Maple Block Meats Co., overseen by co-owner and executive chef Daniel Weinstock, who, for the occasion, roasted a 120-pound pig for 18 hours on-site on cinder blocks. The menu also included a house-made pickle bar, brisket, free-range chicken, macaroni and cheese, heirloom tomato salad and peach cobbler.
Source: Rupert Murdoch, Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger celebrate Moraga Bel Air’s 30th anniversary
How Winemakers Analyze pH and Its Impact on Wine
Measuring a wine’s pH provides clues to acidity and character, but it doesn’t tell you everything
When presenting wines, winemakers will often mention their pH as an indication of character, to point out whether a particular cuvée is energetic and fresh or more smooth and ripe. But what does the pH number mean, exactly, and how can it be used to better understand wine?
Acidity’s importance to wine cannot be understated, as it contributes freshness, acts as a preserving agent, and helps, notably, with microbial stability. Potential of hydrogen (pH) is one of the two main scales used to measure the acidity in wine and countless other solutions. While the other scale, total acidity (TA), is counted in grams per liter, pH measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution. Anna Katharine Mansfield, an associate professor of enology at Cornell University, says, “They’re two different measures: concentration of acid (TA), versus acid strength (pH).”
Some acids are stronger than others, meaning that they release more ions into the solution per weight. “In wine, tartaric, malic, and lactic acid are the main acids,” explains Nova Cadamatre, MW, the owner and winemaker at Trestle Thirty One in New York’s Finger Lakes region. (She also makes wine with Constellation at Robert Mondavi Wineryin Napa.) “Tartaric is stronger, while malic and lactic are weaker, so if there are more of those, you get a higher pH reading, even though you might have more total acid than in another wine with a lower pH.”
The pH scale runs from 0 to 14, from very acidic to very basic, or alkaline. Somewhat confusingly, lower pH numbers mean higher amounts of hydrogen ions, and therefore a more acidic wine. In comparison, lemon juice usually has a pH between 2 and 3, while orange juice and wine are generally between 3 and 4, with some wines reaching slightly beyond that, to high 2s or low 4s. For each full point increase in pH, the level of acidity is 10 times more acidic as you go up, so the difference between a pH of 3 and a pH of 4 is very significant. It’s the difference between a super-crisp cool-climate Riesling (around 3) and a jammy, sun-baked Cabernet Sauvignon from Lodi, California (around 4).
One thing is for sure: When someone tells you a wine is like battery acid, it’s really just a figure of speech. Battery acid has a pH of 1, about 100 times more acidic (calculating the difference between pH levels 1 and 3 by multiplying 10×10) than the crispest of white wines.
What pH Can Tell You
Acidity is an essential component of any wine’s profile, and it greatly influences overall perception. “If the pH is higher, the wine will be softer and rounder, and if the pH is lower, it will feel more linear,” says Cadamatre. “Knowing what your acid is like is a huge consideration [for a winemaker]. It influences the rest of your decisions.”
Some winemakers will prefer measuring by TA, while others prefer pH, when trying to work out their approach for vinifying a particular lot. “TA is going to tell you more about perception, while pH is more helpful to evaluate things like microbial stability issues,” says Mansfield. When pH measures above 3.8, a lot of bacteria have an easier time proliferating, meaning that the wine can face more problems involving microbiological stability.
Winemaker David Croix, the owner of Domaine des Croix in Beaune (who previously worked at Camille Giroud in Beaune and Domaine Roulot in Meursault), explains that he typically looks at pH rather than TA. When wines exceed 3.8, he is more careful about certain aspects of winemaking. “It’s like an alarm bell for me,” Croix says. “In reds, I’ll go for shorter press cycles and shorter macerations to avoid extracting too much potassium that would raise the pH even more, and I’ll do shorter barrel-aging to avoid potential bacterial issues.”
Also influencing a wine’s acidity is time. Mansfield points out that “acids can form other complexes over time—notably, interacting with alcohol—and that can make the older wines less acidic.”
Winemaker Matthieu Perrin, whose family owns Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, concurs that these numbers change over time. “We do analysis of older vintages, and we find that original differences in pH between vintages tend to converge and harmonize.”
Perception vs. Chemistry
Winemakers like Perrin also point out that pH numbers aren’t an absolute or an overriding factor in defining a wine’s character and its freshness. A wine with a pH of 3.5 has twice the hydrogen ions of a wine at 3.6, but the acidity will hardly seem twice as high from a sensory point of view. Individual physiology also plays a part in perceiving flavors, adds Mansfield. “If your saliva has a higher protein content,” she says, “you could be tasting more acid.”
Aspects like tannins, bitterness, reductive notes, alcohol levels, and others can also change the perception of freshness significantly. Cadamatre points out that higher potassium content in the grapes will make the pH of a wine rise, but that at the same time, higher potassium will influence the perception of minerality in that wine. On a sensory level, this might create a greater impression of freshness, even though the wine is less acidic. “When using whole-bunch fermentation,” says Croix, “the potassium in the stems goes into the wine, which raises pH, and yet there is an impression of freshness that comes with the whole-bunch profile.”
Amongst the brain’s chemical receptors, a number of interactions take place that condition overall perceptions. “When a wine is darker, our brain tells us it’s going to be sweeter,” explains Mansfield. “If there are creamy, buttery notes, it will make us think the wine is less acidic.” While such perceptions might seem more sensory illusion than fact, she insists that “the mental is as legitimate as the chemical, in terms of taste and of the pleasure we derive from the wine. There are so many things going on between sensory aspects and chemistry that it gets very complicated to sort them out.”
Reading pH in Context
Dan Petroski, the winemaker at Larkmead and Massican in Napa Valley, regularly sees wines that exhibit freshness despite pH numbers that say otherwise. At Larkmead, the Cabernet Sauvignons often reach or climb above a pH of 4, yet according to Petroski, they retain balance and freshness. He has lowered or eliminated acid additions over time, after seeing that these additions didn’t seem to influence the overall feel of the wines in a significant way. “You see it in the Northern Rhône, as well, with Syrah wines whose pH can reach over 4.2 yet feel remarkably fresh.”
Petroski says that he runs a “very geeky” tasting group that sometimes uses his lab equipment to test the wines in a blind tasting. “Recently,” he says, “we tasted Larkmead Cabs side by side with Quintarelli and Dal Forno Amarones, and it wasn’t easy to tell them apart. Yet when we ran the pH numbers, the Amarones were around 3.6 and the Larkmead was at 4.0. There can certainly be some crazy numbers with pH. Why? Chalk it up to the mystery of terroir.”
Petroski isn’t the only one to see occasional contradictions between high pH numbers and fresh-tasting wines. “The 2018 vintage was very warm and dry in Burgundy,” says Croix, “and this means some pretty high pHs. Yet I don’t have any feeling of heaviness in the wines.”
Considering the number of variables at play, one would tend to agree with Perrin when he recommends taking numbers such as pH with a grain of salt.
“We’re the fifth generation [of winemakers],” he says, “and we’ve been doing this for a hundred years. My grandfather and my father didn’t have access to all the analytical tools we have today. It was more a question of observing nature, of making personal choices. You can’t always draw equations from those numbers. Otherwise, our job would be mathematics.”
Rémy Charest is a journalist, writer, and translator based in Quebec City, Canada. He has been writing about wine and food since 1997 for various Canadian and American print and online publications, including Chacun son vin/WineAlign, Wine Enthusiast, Le Devoir, Le Soleil, EnRoute, Palate Press, Punch Drink, and Châtelaine, and has been a regular radio columnist for CBC/Radio-Canada. He has also judged national and international wine competitions, notably the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, the TEXSOM International Wine Awards, and the International Rosé Championships
Source: How Winemakers Analyze pH and Its Impact on Wine | SevenFifty Daily
How Sulfites Affect a Wine’s Chemistry
Wine professionals discuss sulfur’s impact on everything from oxidation to aromatic compounds and texture.
The emergence of natural wine and the strong viewpoints that sometimes come with it—or against it—have generated endless arguments about sulfite additions and their effects on wine. Chemistry may be more useful than ideology for resolving those disputes, and on that front, scientific research is increasingly showing that sulfites have a very wide set of effects on wine’s aromas, mouthfeel, structure, and development in both the cellar and the bottle.
Traditionally, sulfur dioxide (also known as SO2 or sulfite) has been thought of as a relatively innocuous preservative agent, acting mainly as a barrier against oxidation and undesirable bacteria. While SO2 is effective in that manner, it also does quite a lot more, especially in the early stages of vinification, when it becomes part of numerous reactions and transformations. Indeed, sulfur, the “S” in SO2, is a highly reactive element because it has six valence electrons that enable it to chemically bond to other compounds in many different ways, contributing to the formation of a broad range of molecules.
Changing Everything
Scientists and winemakers are becoming ever more aware of the multifaceted effects of sulfur in wine chemistry. “What research is increasingly showing,” says Régis Gougeon, a professor of enology at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France, who has been studying the subject for well over a decade, “is that changing sulfite additions—or eliminating them—means modifying the organoleptic characteristics of the wine and its whole chemical profile.”
Using or eschewing SO2 at various stages of winemaking has effects on an array of chemical compounds in wine. Phenolic compounds like tannins and anthocyanins—and the way they combine at the molecular level—are modified by the sulfite levels in fermenting or aging wine in a variety of ways that are still not fully understood. Notably, SO2 acts in combination with oxygen and/or acetaldehyde to affect color and mouthfeel.
The type and prevalence of aromatic components like esters and thiols are also affected. For instance, in Sauvignon Blanc, greater sulfite additions will favor the presence of thiols, sulfur-based compounds that provide aromas like grapefruit and passion fruit, especially if the wines are vinified using a reductive approach—such as in stainless steel tanks, with very limited contact with oxygen. Winemaking and barrel aging with little or no sulfur added, on the other hand, will sharply reduce the presence of these thiols, leading to a set of aromas that will trend more toward mineral, citrusy, or tropical notes.
The list goes on. Sulfur-related reactions will affect the formation and prevalence of many other compounds, like aldehydes, which are linked to the appearance of oxidative character; amino acids, which are involved in the development of various polyphenols and aromatic compounds; peptides and fusel alcohols; and things like hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which can produce reductive off-flavors like rotten egg, and various polysulfides. The way sulfur is present in the wine—whether bound in those various compounds or available as free SO2—also affects the way chemical reactions will develop during and after vinification.
Not only are the effects of sulfite-related decisions wide ranging but they are long lasting: Using the same grapes to make different wines with different sulfite regimens will cause the bouquet, mouthfeel, and color of each wine to differ in the short term and the long term. A study published in Analytical Chemistry in July 2015 by Gougeon and his colleagues showed that “memories” of sulfur additions persisted in Chardonnays that had undergone three different levels of sulfite additions—even after several years of bottle aging. The differences in chemical composition linked to sulfite additions persisted even as the wines evolved in bottle.
“The choices made on this front, especially at the start of the process, will lead to a completely different molecular fingerprint in the wine, and to very different trajectories for the wine’s evolution in bottle,” says Gougeon. “You’re choosing either to create a pool of antioxidants in the wine or to have wines where the oxidative processes have already taken place. The earlier the sulfite additions, the more the sulfur stays in the wine.” It’s not just that a higher concentration stays in the wine but that the SO2 lingers longer because it has been more intrinsically bound into the wine. “And there’s a kind of addictive process at work,” Gougeon continues. “Once you start adding SO2, you often need to keep adding more.” Otherwise, the sulfur will dissipate, weakening the barrier against oxidation.
Mapping Sulfur’s Effects
Over the course of the past decade, researchers have used a new method of study called metabolomics to learn more about the effects of sulfur on wines. Metabolomics combines different modes of analysis—like gas chromatography and mass spectrometry—to create an exhaustive map of the chemical landscape of a particular substance. Whereas chemical analysis most often targets specific compounds, metabolomics seeks to show every molecule, known or unknown, to create a complete picture of a particular wine. When a researcher performs this analysis before and after a substance has been exposed to, say, oxidation or sulfite additions, this untargeted, wide-range approach allows all the changes in the substance’s chemical fingerprint to be made visible, including those of compounds that haven’t been known to change—or even known to exist.
“We knew a few thousand compounds were present in wine,” says Gougeon, “but now, through metabolomics, we know there are tens of thousands, many of which have yet to be identified.” He also points out that some of these still-unknown families of chemical compounds seem to participate significantly in oxidative processes and reactions to sulfite additions, so much more remains to be learned.
For instance, a study published in Nature in January 2018 that was led by Fulvio Mattivi, a researcher at the Fondazione Edmund Mach in Trento, Italy, and a leader in the use of metabolomics in wine research, showed that compounds called flavanols and indoles, which play a role in the mouthfeel and aging characteristics of wine, are significantly affected by the use of SO2 during winemaking. This research led to the identification of several new compounds that seem to have significant effects on a wine’s character and evolution during bottle aging—notably, how tannins get smoother over time. In the paper’s conclusion, the authors recommend the reevaluation of SO2 chemistry and its effects on wine—something for which metabolomics is opening new avenues.
The Winemaker’s Point of View
On a more practical level, how do the effects of different sulfite regimens express themselves in the cellar? Some winemakers who have produced both sulfite-added and no-added-sulfur wines in parallel concur with Gougeon’s ideas about the very distinct trajectories produced by both approaches.
Matthieu Carliez, the technical director for the estates of the Vignobles JeanJean group in the Languedoc region of France, vinifies with and without sulfite additions. As the group has been turning to organic viticulture, it’s also experimenting with some no-sulfur winemaking at smaller estates, both to respond to market demand and to expand its approaches in vinification.
Carliez’s outlook is largely aligned with the results of Gougeon’s studies, particularly with regard to oxidation. “Wines that have had sulfite additions from the beginning have been protected from interaction with oxygen at all times,” he says, “whereas those that see no added sulfites fight oxygen and get used to it from the start. As a result, their longer-term resistance to oxygen tends to be greater.”
Claire Naudin, the owner and winemaker of Domaine Naudin-Ferrand in Burgundy, has seen similar results over the last 10 years. A portion of of her Pinot Noirs get crushed, destemmed, and sulfited at the crush pad, while the rest are whole-bunch fermented and foot trodden, with no sulfur added at any point of vinification or barrel aging. The former approach allows her to maintain the style traditionally associated with the domaine, while the latter is an opportunity for her to expand the range of wines and terroir expression.
“The no-sulfur wines tend to taste older when they’re young,” Naudin says. “That goes with their color, which can have a slight orange tinge—but as the wines get older, they keep showing a remarkable freshness of fruit.” Since oxygen has entered the process more actively and earlier on, aromatic traits usually linked to aging tend to emerge earlier. As a counterpoint, the wine usually remains more aromatically stable over time, since the oxidative reactions that yield those traits have already taken place.
Naudin has also noticed that sulfur has an effect on aromatics during and after fermentation, particularly in red wines. “During alcoholic fermentation, the impact is enormous,” she says. “In the no-sulfur wines, the focus is entirely on fruit, without any reductive notes—gamey, cassis, or even garlicky notes in reds. For me, the cassis notes are very much connected to sulfur additions before fermentation.” She also notices more floral notes in her unsulfured red wines, though she admits that this could result from the whole-bunch fermentation. The tannins in these wines also tend to be softer and the color lighter.
Gougeon believes that a better understanding of how sulfur affects wine style could lead winemakers toward less dogmatic approaches to sulfite management. “In some vintages, you might want to use sulfites at the beginning, and in others, at the end of the process,” he says. “What we are currently lacking is a reliable set of indicators that could tell winemakers which wines could be made without sulfur and which ones might need some. It would be better to use markers of potential stability in the wines, rather than preestablished, uniform protocols.”
If such indicators could be provided to winemakers, future decisions about sulfite additions might become more effective and more pragmatic—and less about ideology or fashionable ideas.
Rémy Charest is a journalist, writer, and translator based in Quebec City, Canada. He has been writing about wine and food since 1997 for various Canadian and American print and online publications, including Chacun son vin/WineAlign, Wine Enthusiast, Le Devoir, Le Soleil, EnRoute, Palate Press, Punch Drink, and Châtelaine, and has been a regular radio columnist for CBC/Radio-Canada. He has also judged national and international wine competitions, notably the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, the TEXSOM International Wine Awards, and the International Rosé Championships.
Source: How Sulfites Affect a Wine’s Chemistry | SevenFifty Daily
The Four-Day Road Trip to Take Through France’s Alsace This Autumn
Finding beauty, wine, and absolutely no beasts along the Rhine.
Filled with towns that feel pulled straight from Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast, Alsace and its old-world allure draws travelers back again and again.
But the history of the the wine-rich region on the west bank of the Rhine River is far from a fairytale: the territory was fought over in bloody battles by the French and Germans for more than 300 years. It’s only been part of France since 1945, and the borderland’s dual heritage explains the whimsical blend of architecture (kaleidoscopic houses in timber framing), cuisine (pork-heavy, with thick sauces and lots of sauerkraut), and culture.
Situated between the Vosges Mountains to the west and the Black Forest to the east, it was the Ancient Romans who first established the area as a viticultural hub. Today, white wine is king, as Alsace specializes in dry Riesling and Gewürztraminer (distinct from the sickly sweetness usually associated with these styles) along its famed Route des Vins d’Alsace. But Alsatian attractions extend far beyond just the wine—a lesson my wife and I learned firsthand while traversing the territory by car last fall.
The trip: Four days, 170 miles
High-speed TGV trains from Paris to Strasbourg run multiple times per day (with a ride time of just 1 hour and 45 minutes), making the biggest prefecture in Alsace the perfect launch point for a four-day excursion. This road trip starts on Route A35 heading south, before branching off toward landmarks and small villages.
When to go:
Alsace is at its best in autumn, when the leaves turn and the vines take on a vibrant amber. It’ll be crisp—the average temperature in October is about 52 degrees—so pack a cardigan.
What to drive
While the region is well-connected by highway, the villages themselves have very petit parking spots. We recommend renting a small sedan from Avis or Hertz-Strasbourg Downtown, both conveniently located behind Gare de Strasbourg-Ville.
Day 1
The first thing you’ll notice upon arriving at Strasbourg-Ville station is the jarring intersection of old and new: The original structure, built in the late 1800s, was encased in a modernist glass facade in the early 2000s. Viewed from the outside, the historic train station appears trapped in a snow-globe. You’ll spend time exploring Strasbourg on your way back—so pick up a rental and set the GPS for Obernai.
Bypass Obernai for now and continue west up Mont Saint-Odile. Come for Hohenburg Abbey’s odd history (it’s the site of a famous book heist), stay for the spectacular views: The abbey’s terrace provides panoramic views of Alsace all the way to the Black Forest. Then, head back to snag lunch in Obernai itself and hop back on the road to find your first drink of the day. The map and resources at Alsace Wine Route are a terrific way to discover wineries along your journey, but kick things off with a free tasting at nearby Robert Blanck. You don’t have to leave with a bottle, but you will—we suggest the full-bodied Pinot Gris.
Continue on to Haut-Koenigsbourg. Dating back to the Middle Ages, the castle was renovated in the 1900s at Kaiser Wilhelm II’s command. Today the fortress is surprisingly well-preserved and a popular tourist attraction—tickets run €9 ($10) apiece.
Save the day’s last two stops—Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr, the two Alsatian towns that allegedly influenced the original Beauty and the Beast—for golden hour. Sashay the same streets as Belle, specifically, Ribeauvillé’s La Grand-Rue from the Tour des Bouchers clock tower to the Augustian church, before arriving in Riquewihr for the evening. Pose next to one of the many quaint fountains scattered through Riquewihr, the more bustling of the towns, before settling in for dinner at the French-Japanese Au Trotthus, which specializes in fusion dishes like tuna tartare with ponzu sauce and wasabi cream. Once you’ve had your fill, check into Hotel l’Oriel for the night, conveniently located in the city center.
Day 2
Start the day slow and enjoy an espresso al fresco at one of the many outdoor cafés on Riquewihr’s main drag. (Keep breakfast light—lunch is a doozy.) Once the car is packed up, set course for Kaysersberg.
On the outskirts of town lies Domaine Weinbach. Call ahead to schedule a tasting in a small room cluttered with bric-a-brac that feels like the Faller family dining room—they’ve owned and operated the estate since 1898. Tour the cellars and you’ll see giant oak barrels as high as the ceiling, some almost 100 years old, filled with balanced Pinot Blanc and fruit-forward Muscat.
After the tasting, you could shell out for lunch at Michelin-starred Le Chambard. But head across the street to Flamme & Co. instead. It’s the brainchild of the same chef, Olivier Nasti, and you can get tarte flambée (the French take on pizza) for a more reasonable price. You’ll want to order a few, but highlights for us included a flatbread with giant chunks of brie, and one with venison bolognese from a deer the chef shot himself.
It’s on the Colmar. En-route, make a pit-stop at the Jean-Baptiste Adam winery in Ammerschwihr. The tasting room feels a touch more corporate than others in the area, but that shouldn’t stop you from buying a case of crisp Cremant, which is effectively Alsatian Champagne.
Colmar is known for its bright colors and canals (the most seductive section of town is, after all, nicknamed “Petit Venice”). Once you’re done wandering the picturesque streets, grab dinner at l’Arpége, whose gastronomic dishes are practically impressionist art. Take note if the foie gras confit is on the menu—it’s a must-order.
With two nights in Colmar, treat yourself to a stay at luxurious Hotel le Maréchal. The building itself was constructed in 1565, but the romantic vibes persist to today. Pro tip: when booking, request a room with a canal view.
Day 3
Before motoring away for the day, drop in at Bistrot Gourmand for a brunch bruschetta. (Say yes to the smoked ham with raclette and tomatoes).
Then, it’s just a 15-minute jaunt to Eguisheim, known for its picturesque cobbled avenues. Prepare to use your camera a lot here—preferably prior to a tasting at Maison Wolfberger if you want a steady shot. (Wolfberger is known for its hearty pours.) From there, proceed to lunch at La Galinette for crepes. Order something with sautéed mushrooms, served in a luscious pile atop your lunch.
Well-fed and ready to roll, your next stop is Lac du Ballon, a reservoir on the slopes of the highest mountain in the Vosges, Grand Ballon. Pack a pair of sturdy shoes on this trip, just so you can make the hour-long hike to the mountain’s peak—on a clear day, the views extend into Switzerland as far as Mont Blanc.
After scaling the summit, you’re bound to feel famished. Drive back to Colmar for dinner at Wistrub Brenner—the duck salad is cooked to perfection—then treat yourself to dessert at Jacques Bockel Chocolatier. Whether you try truffles or macarons, you can’t go wrong.
Day 4
Time to return from whence you came. Before dropping the rental car off in Strasbourg, swing north for a glimpse of the futuristic, glass-covered European Parliament building. (Strasbourg is the seat of parliament for the entire European Union.)
Back in town, take a stroll through Petit France, the historic district where the city’s craftsmen once lived. Sure, you’ve seen old European churches before, but Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg is truly a sight to behold. A prime example of Gothic architecture, the 466-foot-tall cathedral was actually the highest building in the world for more than 200 years, after its construction in the mid-17th century. Entry is free, so go in to admire the astronomical clock from 1843, adorned with hand-carved figurines.
Your viticultural tour culminates on the grounds of a historic hospital. Or in the ground, to be more exact. Hôpital Civil hosts a 600-year-old wine cellar beneath its floors, along with a wine barrel dating back to 1472. This space is now a museum where the vitners of Alsace are allowed to mature their product inside the ancient barrels and sell their wine in the gift shop for as few as €6 ($6.75).
Next, make a stop at Brasserie Les Haras for dinner. The expansive eatery is housed in Strasbourg’s former Royal Stud Farm, and large parts of the restaurant retain that rustic stable feel—especially apparent on the cozy, wood-beamed second floor. You can’t go wrong with the choucroute (sausage, cabbage, potatoes) or, if you’d rather leave with the top button of your pants undone, the ultra-rich bouchée á la reine. Thought to be an aphrodisiac, this dish with French royal origins places a puff pastry atop a pile of pasta, coated in creamy béchamel sauce.
Walk your dinner off with a lazy amble along the canal before checking into the ultra-contemporary Hotel Arok, a welcome change of pace to end your time in Alsace.
Source: The Four-Day Road Trip to Take Through France’s Alsace This Autumn
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